Dave Ingram:
Thanks for asking.
I would expect to concentrate my attention as a board member on making sure that the SOA supports the success of the profession through post fellowship education programs. We have had feedback from employers that they want actuaries who can think strategically, participate in effective decision making, communicate with non-actuarial colleagues and manage/lead others. I would want to get involved with and/or instigate efforts to review the effectiveness and if needed improve the existing programs that exist to promote those skills in actuaries. Ultimately, the value of the FSA is determined by the value that employers perceive that they are getting from fully qualified actuaries. The most valuable actuaries are most often people who possess these skills in addition to a rigorous technical background.
Regarding both the UES program and the changes to the ASA syllabus, there are two questions to think about. First, were these both good things to do and second, did we do them well. My thinking is that both ideas are fundamentally sound. And for both, we will need to monitor execution to see if they are actually working well. For example, we can track candidates who qualified under the UES for some subjects and see if their success on later exams is better or worse than candidates who qualified under exams. We can also investigate whether there are any other ways that candidates from the UES might be different from candidates who took all exams. And we can also track the extent to which actuaries become involved in doing work with Predictive Analytics.
But as we all think about these topics, I think that we all need to reflect on how we are currently using our actuarial education. In the past month, what part of your work is something that you can do (a)solely because you learned the subject for an exam, (b)what part was learned “on the job”, (c)what part was mixed, and (d)what part did you learn to do from some post fellowship educational effort on your part?
Regarding the addition of the Predictive Analysis materials to the ASA curriculum, I would suggest that post fellowship education on this topic is absolutely vital to successful integration of any new topic into actuarial practice. If we do not bring the managers of new actuaries into some knowledge of a new topic, then it is likely that actuarial candidates who are interested in Predictive Analytics will end up working for non-actuaries who will be much less likely to encourage them to complete their actuarial education. We will be educating people to leave the profession.
You have my permission to share this as you see fit.
Dave Ingram